1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of programmable computer processors, and more particularly to application specific instruction sets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Computer processors can generally be sorted into two classes: general purpose processors that can be adapted to a multitude of applications; and application-specific processors that are optimized to serve specific applications. General purpose processors are designed to run a general instruction set, namely a set of instructions that the processor will recognize and execute. Such general instruction sets tend to include a large number of instructions in order to support a wide variety of programs. Application-specific processors are designed to run a more limited instruction set, where the instructions are more tailored or specific to the particular application. While an application-specific processor can enable certain programs to execute much faster than when run on a general purpose processor, they are by definition more limited in functionality due to the limited instruction sets they run. Further, instructions for an application-specific processor must be defined before the processor is manufactured.
Accordingly, what is desired is the ability to write a program in a convenient programming language and to extend an instruction set of a computer processor with instructions tailored to that program so that the program can execute on that computer processor more efficiently.